The 19th-century witnessed renewed interest in the works of William Shakespeare,
and his major plays and characters were known to most Americans. Here, Nast
portrays Johnson as Shakespeare's beleaguered Richard III demanding another
horse after breaking his Republican and Democratic hobbyhorses. The medallion
around King Andy's neck contains an image of a dead duck. The president had
derided his journalistic critics as "dead ducks," but Nast seized upon
the term to ridicule the president's lack of political clout. The hobbyhorse in
the left-background is labeled "Conservative."